In my writing career, I’ve written everything from sweet Regency to erotic male/male romance, but I have never written a closed door love scene. Not that I’m opposed to that, just haven’t done it. Yet.

There’s a vocal readership now for so-called “clean and wholesome” romances, which I understand means not only no sex but no cursing. Let’s put aside my visceral dislike of the words “clean romance” which in my minds implies that all other romances are somehow dirty. My friends insist that wasn’t the attention, but it still seems that way to me. Clean and dirty are mutually-exclusive antonyms. The toilet is clean or it’s dirty. It’s be a little bit dirty or downright filthy, but it’s not clean. I wish someone could come up with a better term to satisfy that readership that doesn’t sound judgmental.

That aside, I honestly don’t think I could write a male character who didn’t swear. My dad was an Army vet and a truck driver who could swear a blue streak, esp. when the traffic was bad. I guess I grew up believing that men just peppered their conversation with cuss words. To his credit, I never heard him use the “F” word, but I heard everything else. Once I started to talk, he had to watch his language for a few years, because I repeated everything he said. Once I was old enough to understand that there were words Daddy (and Mommy) could say that Linda couldn’t, he was back to his old ways.

Even my honorable barrister, Stephen Chaplin, of Lady Elinor’s Escape utters a “bloody hell” now and then. Another male character is fond of saying “damn and blast” when he’s frustrated.

The rest of my romances fall into the middle ground of sensual (Linda) to steamy (Lyndi Lamont). While I have written erotic romance as Lyndi, I am not doing so now. The genre has changed and my vanilla sex scenes no longer qualify as erotic. I’m happier somewhere in the middle, anyway, though as I said, not opposed to closing the door if that seems appropriate to the characters and the story. It seems the rule book has been thrown out these days and pretty much anything goes.

My next project will be a sweet romance, though I’m keeping that closed door love scene in mind, just in case.

The Sun entered the astrological sign of Virgo today at 3:20PM, Pacific Time.

Virgo @ vgorbash

Virgo is the sign of the virgin, but in these modern times, don’t take that too literally. The sign is generally symbolized by a young woman in a toga, sometimes with a sheaf of wheat in her arms. Virgo is sometimes associated with Persephone, daughter of Demeter, goddess of the harvest. Persephone was kidnapped by Hades where she spent part of the year as Queen of the Underworld.

Virgo is an Earth sign, hence the practicality, but since it’s also a mutable sign, Virgos are more adaptable than their fellow earth signs, Taurus and Capricorn. As the sixth sign, Virgo rules over sixth house matters, specifically health and medicine. Virgo colors are green and brown, fitting for an earth sign. Virgo’s gemstone (or starstone) is variously given as the sapphire or sardonyx.

Note: Mercury went retrograde Aug. 12 and will remain so until Sep. 5. Of course, scientists say all astrology is rubbish and particularly like to use apparent retrograde motion to debunk the notion. They’re right that it shouldn’t work, but somehow it does, at least for me. Since the planet Mercury rules communication and short distance travel, hickups in those areas may be more frequent when the planet is in retrograde. I’ve seen some of those recently. How about you?